Frogspawn Coral dropping tentacles

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BlueDolphin

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Mar 24, 2004
Messages
265
Location
Lakeland, FL
This is my first coral fragment. I put it in my tank three days ago. Today I noticed that it looks like several of the tentacle tips have fallen off. Could this be caused by too much water flow? I had been playing around with the power heads to try and get the flow just right for the coral, but I still thought that it was too much. The coral wasn't whipping around like it was in a hurricane or anything, but yesterday afternoon I found the coral on the sand - I had assumed it was blown off the rock. But, I think I finally have the flow close to perfect where the coral is just gently swaying. I haven't gotten my ca or alk test kits yet so I don't know what those parameters are at. But, when I tested all of the other yesterday, the pH was a little low. So, today I did a 10% water change. The new readings are as follows:

Temp: 81.0 F
SG: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <10
pH: 8.3

I currently only have one fish in the tank - a Regal Tang. She doesn't go near the coral, so I don't think that she is nipping at it. Is it possible for some of the tentacles, maybe the tips, to be blown off like that?? Any other ideas? :? I am attaching pictures of the frogspawn from today and yesterday (before missing tentacles). The coral is in a different position due to being blown off yesterday. But if you take the second picture and imagine the coral rotated about 45 degrees clockwise, then that will be what it looks like in picture one. It might be hard to see where the missing tentacles are in picture one, but you can kind of make out the area to the left that is partly exposed due to lack of tentacles.
 
Since I don't know your Ca or Alk levels I can't say anything for sure. This sounds like polyp bailout to me due to some stressor. The stressor could be Ca or Alk levels or maybe the temporary excess flow. This is normally more common with SPS but it happens with LPS too. Basically, they are typically uncomfortable and want to make sure their DNA continue so they release some of their polyps to go attach to the substrate elsewhere and form a new skeleton. In fact, coral reefs are heading northward towards cooler waters in this manner (along with spawning, and other methods of reproduction).

If you are careful, you might have 2 frogspawns. Here's a good article.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/nftt/index.htm

Good luck!!!
 
Thanks for your replies. The coral seems to be doing better now. The water flow seems perfect. I was having a problem keeping it from falling off the liverock. I tried to wedge it in there, and it seems stable for the moment. Here is an updated picture:
 
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